PEKIN — One man followed a drug-laden path of crime that led him to a patch of woods where city police tackled him, and to prison.

Two other people who allegedly followed Justin Petty down that road may be offered the chance to avoid incarceration when, beginning Monday, their cases on charges of operating a theft-related scam to raise drug money come to court.

Petty, 25, of 1609 Sheridan Road, ran out of chances with his latest case.

He began a three-year prison term after pleading guilty June 23 to burglary by stealing a range finder and socket adaptor from the Big R store at 3315 Court St. in April.

It was one of about 30 similar thefts he and three partners allegedly committed since January in Pekin, East Peoria and Peoria — all to produce cash to buy heroin, according to police reports.

Casey Landrith, 23, of 1524 S. Fifth St., Apt. 2, will appear Monday in Tazewell County Circuit Court on a burglary charge stemming from that spree. Haley Kramer, 23, of Metamora, is set to appear July 24. Both defendants are being reviewed for possible probation terms that would include strictly monitored drug addiction treatment, according to court records.

Jacob Hill, 24, of 1120 Sumner St., was sentenced in mid-May to a 30-day jail term for misdemeanor theft in connection with the cases.

Petty and Landrith allegedly committed most of the crimes that followed the same strategy involving theft, gift cards and pawn shops.

One of the group would enter a hardware store, pocket items and leave without paying for them. Another would return the items to the store a short time later and claim they were legitimately purchased but without a sales receipt to prove it.

Their goal was to obtain either cash back or, more often, a gift card for other store purchases, according to police reports. The ring members then would sell the gift cards for cash at area pawn shops.

Petty was arrested when police chased him from the Big R store into nearby woods and used electric Taser stuns to bring him down. The other three were arrested after they allegedly sought to pull off another burglary at the 14th Street Hardware store in Pekin a week later.

Petty received a two-year probation term with his trial conviction for mob action in October 2011. Within six months he was cited for violating the probation and jailed for a 90-day term.

A judge permitted Petty’s release to obtain drug treatment at an in-house clinic. By November 2012, however, he had again violated the terms of his probation, which was finally terminated as unsuccessfully completed in February 2013, according to court records.